Monthly Archives: July 2004

The Nike/Philips MP3RUN MP3 player and workout computer. €349.99. ‘Runners strap the MP3RUN to their arm and the wireless, Bluetooth-enabled speed sensor to their shoe and they’re ready to go. The sensor continuously collects information such as tracking speed and distance with up to 99.6% accuracy, which can be on demand accessed via the audible feedback. When finished running, the display shows a summary of the performance and gives an audible summary on the pace, distance and time via the…

The rather ugly Water Clock runs on beer, coffee and fruit juice too. You can even use it as a vase. Gosh! Just remember, no excuses when you’re late for work that your alarm had a hangover, OK? £13.00.

There’s something gloriously symbiotic about a high intensity, mosquito attracting, LED keychain light which contains an ultrasonic mosquito repeller. Don’t you think? Perhaps we will end up creating a new breed of psychotically confused mossies out there. I do hope not. $1.99.

OYBike. Membership £10.00. Rental from 30p for 15 minutes. Mobile phone access. ‘An OYBike registered user select [sic] an available bicycle and the locks display a code, the user then calls the OYBike call centre and gives them that code. A unique pin code is then read out to the user and sent back by text messaging. This pin code is entered into the lock to release the bicycle. After use the bicycle is locked into any empty port on…

The Hummer CD/Clock Radio. $149.99. For the man with a large ego and a tiny garage? ‘Hummer CD and clock radio, complete with front headlights and brake lights that light up when the unit is in operation..’

Hands up all those who remember The Spot, you old wrinklies you. Well it’s back, but that’s not the purpose of this post. The real reason is that the mobile phone industry seems to want to go down the same, sad online soap route with the coming launch of Cellpop. Can’t tell whether it’s SMS based or not, but it’s still an ‘oh dear’ from me, I’m afraid.[Thanks John] ‘Cell Pop is a humorous look at the dark side of…

Hmm…inspired by a chat I had with Cory and Doc a while ago, I’ve decided to Wiki the 1 Million Free & Legal Music Tracks page. For those of you who don’t know what a Wiki is, it’s a page or set of pages which can be altered by any visitor to a website. My hope is that people will responsibly use the opportunity to add cool new free music links to the page as they find them. Hey, who…

The Slimline Photostore looks rather neat. Basically a portable DVD/CDRW combo drive with integral memory card slots. It’s a lot nicer than any I’ve seen previously though, and has some cool additional features. It plays MP3 and audio CDs – and DVDs through a TV – and you can use it to display your photos direct from the camera. Comes with remote control, rechargeable battery and USB 2.0. And it’s only £179.99. Bargin’. ‘Simply place a CD-R or CD-R/W disk…

The Smart Park Ultrasonic Parking Assistant. $17.99 buys you less dents per day? ‘An ideal tool if you have a new driver in the house, or just want a little extra help parking in the garage. Utilizing the newest ultrasonic & microcomputer technology, the device detects the exact positioning of your car with light and sound.’

PA Musical PowerHorn. $39.99. Er..so there’s a reason why you would need to buy a megaphone which comes with 94 built in songs, isn’t there? Isn’t there? ‘This portable PA system plays 94 built-in tunes — everything from major college fight songs to nostalgic favorites, Christmas carols and children’s songs. Plus, you can program up to five more tunes yourself with the keypad, or use it as an organ.’

The Aqualert. When too much water is just too much water. ‘The danger with water leaks, whether they occur in homes, offices, warehouses, factories, sports pavilions, caravans, sheds, garages, shops, hotels, etc., is that they can go undetected for hours and maybe even days…When water comes into contact with the Aqualert sensor cable, a loud audible warning will be triggered. As little as 5ml of water will trigger the alarm. The alarm will continue to sound until it is turned…

I’m somewhat mystified by the marketing girl with the headphones, but notwithstanding DeepNet Explorer is actually a cracking good web browser. I routinely install and uninstall IE alternatives (don’t we all?) – including Firefox et al – but this one may be a keeper, if they just get rid of a few tiny bugs (and to be fair I am using the beta version). Why’s it so good? Well, numero uno – it fits right in with my IE use….

A Segway, a camcorder, some sponsors and a web site. America at 10mph. Sounds like a marketing stunt to me. Clever though. ‘4300 miles, 17 states, 46 cities. On August 5, a solo Segway rider and crew will depart Seattle, WA to begin a 10 MPH expedition to Boston, MA in pursuit of the American Dream.’

If you use an inkjet printer – and especially if you use one for things like producing photos – you need to run, not walk to the Inksaver site and download the free demo. I’ve been trying the full version of this $34.99 software for a few weeks now and it rocks! I looked at it when it first arrived on the scene, but it could only handle a small number of printers. It now copes with everything – and…

The USB MP3 Clock [Babel] is kinda cute in a retro blue sorta way. You can record a 50 second clip of MP3 sounds, music or whatever for your alarm using the USB cable and your PC. Hey, and the antenna lights up when the alarm sounds. Funky eh?